Multistakeholder meeting? Wasn’t it a conference? Yes and no. It was a conference in the sense that it was held at the SkyCity Convention Centre, some sessions had speakers with questions and answers, and people walked around with name tags. But it was much more than a conference.

We drew participants from a very broad spectrum of society. Nearly all Internet conferences around the world are attended by beardy geeks, and sometimes you also get lawyers and public servants – an odd mix at the best of times. NetHui had all that, plus representation from all sectors of society. Teachers, startup entrepreneurs, tangata whenua, librarians, politicians, feminists, investors, a High Court judge, business scions, journalists, anarchists, futurists, secondary school students, social scientists … you name it, they were there, helping shape the future of the Internet in New Zealand. We even had a couple of dickheads. At InternetNZ, we walk the talk that everyone is a stakeholder in the Internet.

We left plenty of space for everyone to contribute. Normal conferences have sessions led by a speaker, and you’re lucky if there’s time left for Q&A at the end. At NetHui, session facilitators were briefed that in the breakout sessions that made up about about half of the allocated time, there was to be no more that 5-10 minutes of scene setting, and then the participants were to drive the discourse. In the barcamp sessions (more on this below), which represented a significant chunk of the rest of the schedule, participants set the entire agenda and engaged in collaborative learning. Everyone had a chance to speak and be listened to; everyone had a chance to learn from their peers. While we did have some excellent star presenters in the more formal sessions, for me the most interesting and useful learnings arose from collaboration among people with no real public profile.

We provided a substrate for community building. Most conferences are mostly about acquiring skills and contacts, and plenty of that happened at NetHui. But even more, NetHui was about joining together organic groups of interest that could continue on and make progress after the event. Community is a wonderful thing, in that communities can form along any common interest, whether that’s based on location, demographic, identity, academic interest, professional skill, political concern, and any one of a host of other variables. We provided a safe place where people could explore or expound their own interests, and build relationships and communities with people with common goals.

The power hierarchy was greatly diminished. In normal conferences, there are both explicit and implicit hierarchies – the busy experts fly in, speak, and fly out or engage in meetings with the other busy experts, and high profile names have little entourages around them. At NetHui, most people were there for the duration and nominally high profile people were very accessible, present, and ready to engage. Completely eradicating hierarchy is a very big task, but the spirit of NetHui is such that the playing field was about as level as it could get.

NetHui is national Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Having attended the global IGF in Bali last year, I can tell you that in New Zealand we live multistakeholderism in a much more real way than in many parts of the rest of the world. It just seems to fit well with the New Zealand psyche, where everyone should have a fair go, and people naturally treat each other as equals.

This year I volunteered to organise the 11 barcamp (unconference) sessions, along with Kevin Prince and Kelly Buehler. We asked attendees on Wednesday and Thursday evening to write down their ideas for sessions they’d like to see on post-it notes, an whack them on the main exit door. My job was to collate these and try to coalesce them into common themes, and then schedule them in such a way that they didn’t conflict with themes running in the other streams – not an easy job, and one that continued into the wee hours of each morning.

One of those sessions that was way out of my subject area depth was the session on gender issues, which was facilitated by the brilliant Joy Liddicoat, one of my fellow directors at the Domain Name Commission. One of the few hetero men in the group, I learned a lot, more than I expected from this session. The timing was great, in that it helped inform my facilitation of other barcamp sessions during the day. My key takeout from this session is that we aging white men who tend to dominate the agenda and conversation especially in technical forums, are well served to take a bit of extra effort to ensure that people whose voices are less confident, or frequently spoken over, to be heard and acted upon.

The session on bridging the digital divide was also fascinating. We broke into smaller groups during this session; the group I was in discussed funding access initiatives. I was surprised to learn the WINZ makes a practice of sending their clients whom they are about to cut off from their benefits to public libraries to compose CVs using the libraries’ computers and Internet. This results in a significant drain on public library resources for which they receive no funding from WINZ, essentially shifting the funding burden from central government to local government.

In the subsequent Parliamentary Panel on Digital Rights, I asked the government MP Simon O’Connor why this was happening, and to please fix it. He seemed to be in a state of denial that this was happening, while the opposition MPs assured the audience that this would never happen on their watch. NZ First’s Tracey Martin while admitting to not knowing much about ICT, worryingly suggested that universal Internet access could be provided by ISPs at no cost to the end user without government subsidies using an advertising-supported business model. Given that she is the party spokesperson on research, science, and technology, I hope she can upskill herself should she ever get near real power.

Other standout performances from politicians included a great speech by ICT Minister Amy Adams, who over her term in this portfolio has done a great job of understanding many of the key pain points of our sector. Her support of open data in government was excellent, as was her commitment to the New Zealand Government’s support of the multistakeholder approach to Internet governance, saying that cross-jurisdictional issues are a big reason why the Internet is best run by non-government agencies.

Of the politicians present, Gareth Hughes from the Greens exhibited the most comprehensive empathy with the audience and knowledge of the subject area, and seemed to have his party’s unqualified backing for improving Internet access, supporting the weightless economy, providing better checks on government surveillance including dismantling the Waihopai spy base, and opposing joining the Trans Pacific Partnership which would severely impact New Zealand’s independence, particularly with respect to intellectual property. Labour’s Clare Curran also has an excellent understanding of the issues. Labour chose NetHui to launch its ICT Policy which was a savvy move.

Other highlights for me included the plenary address by Privacy Commissioner John Edwards, who beautifully unpicked the right to be forgotten in the aspects of market, mores, law, and architecture. The text of his address is online, and well worth a read. In the panel following the address, Thomas Beagle of Tech Liberty explained why he thought that privacy is not dead, highlighting that despite its complexity, we do have considerable control over our privacy, and expressing optimism that with a bit of tweaking, New Zealand’s Privacy Act could ratchet up baseline protections and close existing loopholes for local services.

The barcamp session on privacy was also great, the bottom line of which it all boils down to informed consent. Click-through gobbledygook legalese “I Accept” terms and conditions don’t really amount to people having an understanding of how, why, or for how long the receiving company will be accessing, using, aggregating, and distributing the information. It was suggested that sites be required to have a maximum-number-of-words plain English summary of the terms available next to the “I Accept” button, and that a third party authority supply badges for sites that reach minimum privacy standards.

Similarly, in the online safety session there was general agreement the we need to provide the skills for everyone from the very young to the very old to think critically about the information they consume, and the actions they take online, both with respect to the impact on themselves as well as other people. As much as we’d like to be able to protect people, it will never be possible to do this in a foolproof manner, and it would be very useful for everyone to be able to have evaluation skills that will warn them when they are about to do something that is unsafe.

The job of giving the final address fell on Rod Drury, whose time had been cut short by the previous panel on convergence and the future of digital media going overtime. Rod very artfully embraced the NetHui kaupapa, dispensed with his speech, and drove straight into questions in which he let rip. I don’t always agree with Rod, but I admire his agility, responsiveness, and ability to cut straight to the heart of the issue, as if time were a scarce resource (which it is). And Rod is always himself, for which I have great respect.

One of the side events of NetHui was Hadyn Glass’sMoxie Session on The Next 25 Years. I was one of three speakers, including Google’s NZ Country Manager Ross Young, and Flossie CEO Jenene Crossan. I had six minutes to describe how the Internet would change the world in the next 25 years. My central thesis is that things keep getting better, and the Internet plays an important role in this by enabling much faster, efficient communications. 25 years ago, Sun Microsystems’ tag line was “The Network is the Computer” – now the network is everything, the computer, storage, exotic peripherals, users, and even programmer – the Internet of Everything. This trend is set to continue, and is already significantly impacting the way we think, which will really accelerate as we become fully integrated with the net and each other in the future through direct bodily implants. Move over Google Glass, you’re a transitional technology. In order to maximise the benefits of this, we each will adopt within ourselves the core values that arise from the Internet: being collaborative at the core, making decisions using multistakeholder processes, embracing diversity, resilience and antifragility, borderlessness, supporting many communities of interest, and self-empowerment. Improved integration and communication will help ensure that good triumphs over evil (albeit unevenly), as we all want a future that’s better than the present.

The other key side event for me was the National Startup Meetup, where we launched Startup New Zealand. Our purpose: to bring together and activate regional and national communities of entrepreneurs, technical talent and related organisations. We run programmes including Startup Weekends supporting early stage entrepreneurs and their ventures. Entrepreneurship can be difficult and risky, but by working together we can realise our goal of a connected, innovative and prosperous New Zealand. At our meetup, we brainstormed ideas for startups arising from the key themes of NetHui – beginning the process of turning the talk at NetHui into tangible action. Each person present also had the opportunity to give a one-minute pitch on their startup, and any asks or offers they had to make of the group. Over 50 people came from around the country, including many who were not NetHui attendees. Watch this space as Startup New Zealand grows as an organic entity supporting entrepreneurial communities.

In summary, this year’s NetHui was very busy and productive on many fronts. I made many new friends and learned so much, and many of the things I learned were serendipitous, wonderful, and useful.

I’m proud to be an InternetNZ Councillor, that my organisation put on such a great event for the benefit of all of New Zealand’s Internet stakeholders. But the real credit goes to the organising team, particularly Ellen Strickland, Kevin Prince, David Cormack, Krystal “Ball” Waine, and of course Jordan Carter our Chief Exec, as well as all of the other InternetNZ staff, stream leaders, and volunteers who pulled out all the stops to make it happen. I’d also like to hat-tip outgoing InternetNZ President Frank March with whom I sat in a group at our strategic planning day back in 2010 sketching out what a New Zealand Internet Governance Forum might look like, and also Vikram Kumar the former InternetNZ Chief Exec who shaped the first two NetHui and pulled it together as a flagship event for our organisation and the Internet in NZ.

I’m standing for the InternetNZ Council again. This is an important job in a great organisation. If you’re a member, I’d appreciate your vote. If you’re not a member, then I’d urge you to join (note you must have been a member for at least three months prior to the election to vote). It only costs $21, and is a great way to be involved in shaping the future of the Internet in New Zealand and globally.

Here’s my election statement (officially published on the InternetNZ web site), and I’d be happy to answer any questions here in the comments.

Hi, I’m Dave Moskovitz and I spend most of my life in startups at the busy intersection of technology, commerce, and making the world a better place. I’m a programmer by trade, but most of my work at present is in governance, investment, and education. You can find out more about me on my blog or my LinkedIn profile.

I have worked hard as a Councillor since my election in 2010. I currently serve on the Grants Committee and the Investment Committee, as well as being the Council-appointed director on the Domain Name Commission board. I have also volunteered to work on the NetHui programme planning group and will do whatever I can to make this year’s NetHui the best yet. I have also served on the Business Development Committee and the CEO review special committee. If you’re in doubt as to my contribution to any of these groups, just ask anyone who’s been involved.

During my tenure I have done my best to be available to members. I’ve participated on the members and Policy Advisory Group (PAG) email lists, trying to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible, also taking time to be present at member meetings and fora. I’m easy to find online if you’re trying to get in touch with me.

I am particularly pleased that during my time on council, our membership has nearly doubled. Our membership is becoming ever more diverse which is fitting as our stakeholders are really everyone in New Zealand. I strongly believe that InternetNZ is the kaitiaki, or guardian of this critical resource, for the benefit of everyone, and want to ensure that we act in the best interests of wider society, keeping the Internet open and uncaptureable, and promoting a better world through a better Internet. This affects everyone, and as the designated manager of the dot-NZ domain space under RFC1591, we have a sacrosanct responsibility to serve the community. We do this well, but we could be even better.

InternetNZ does a lot of good work, in the areas of promoting better rights and freedoms with respect to online security and surveillance, sensible protection of the fair use of copyrighted material, ensuring that citizens’ rights online are equivalent to their rights offline and more. We’ve worked hard to become the “go-to people” for information and policy advice about the Internet. We enable other organisations such as the 2020 Trust, Creative Commons Aotearoa/NZ, the World Internet Project, and Netsafe to improve access to the Internet, encourage free sharing of information, measure Internet usage, and provide public education about online safety. We also partnered with a number of organisations in Canterbury following the earthquake to do our bit to assist with the Christchurch rebuild. And we help connect our members and stakeholders with each other and wider society through events like NetHui.

I would like to see InternetNZ do even more by using a greater proportion of our resources to enable other organisations to make the Internet in New Zealand a better place, fulfilling our Constitutional object “to maintain and extend the availability of the Internet and its associated technologies and applications in New Zealand, both as an end in itself and as means of enabling organisations, professionals and individuals to more effectively collaborate, cooperate, communicate and innovate in their respective fields of interest.” That is our primary purpose, and that is where we should be focussing our attention.

If re-elected, I will continue to work hard, and strive to work better as a networked organisation, leveraging our resources to enable other aligned organisations to participate in and advance our mission.

Do you have strong feelings about government surveillance? Ever since the release of information about government surveillance by Edward Snowden, I feel that the nature of the relationship of trust between governments and their citizens has changed.

It’s thrown into sharp relief the uneasy balance between citizens’ right to privacy, and governments’ obligations to provide security to their citizens.

InternetNZ is drafting a paper formulating a position on this as the kaitiaki or guardians of the Internet in New Zealand, and have issued a background paper which I would encourage you to read. If you’re a member of InternetNZ you can comment on the members-discuss email list. If you’re not a member, I would encourage you to join InternetNZ. And if you don’t want to join or comment yourself, please contact me directly either in the comments below or on the contact form so I can ensure that your voice is heard.

InternetNZ held NetHui this year, a multistakeholder conference in which we tried to take the Internet out of the server room and to the nation. After all, just about everybody is a stakeholder in the Internet, and there are big opportunities to be uncovered in getting together to discuss how the Internet is governed and used.

There is plenty of information about the fantastic conference on the NetHui web site; for me the real highlight was Lawrence Lessig’s keynote in which he makes the empassioned plea for New Zealand, as a “high-functioning democracy”, to save America from itself, arguing that free information and checks against abuse of corporate power are critical to maintaining a free society.

One of the biggest surprises for me was the willingness of those present to explore alternative models to intellectual property protection, given a general disdain for current copyright and software patent law. I hope to see some real progress in this area in the near future; my contribution to this initiative is to organise a Wellington Creative Commons Meetup where we can work together to explore positive change.

I played a small part in organising the conference, focusing on the Digital Literacy session of the Access and Diversity stream.

The session highlighted that there is a great gulf between those who believe that Digital Literacy is chiefly concerned with teaching underprivileged students how to drive Microsoft Office, and those who believe that it is the duty of our education system to teach people how to analyse information and use the broad range of online tools imaginatively, sensibly, and safely.

I hope to be involved in a full-day session later in the year exploring these issues further with practitioners in the field, encouraging the players to collaborate and work together toward shared goals.

Here is the content of the Digital Literacy session for your own viewing pleasure.

Last year, I was elected to the InternetNZ Council for a one-year term, as the result of the early resignation of Chris Streatfield. After one amazing but short year in office, I’m pleased to offer my services again as a councillor.

In the last year I have

Made significant contributions to the development of the Investment and Charitable Grants policies

Encouraged a wider group of people from my diverse networks to join InternetNZ and participate in the conversation

Pressed for the widening of InternetNZ’s brief “up the stack”, so that we focus on the usage and impact of the Internet in wider society, rather than just the pipes

Connected InternetNZ staff and other councillors with appropriate people in external organisations where we can make a difference, such as the Wellington City Council’s Digital Strategy Development forum

Made myself available to members through Twitter, LinkedIn, and email to raise any issues of concern to Council

Promoted a culture of creative entrepreneurship, shared purpose, and respect around the council table

If re-elected, I will continue to work hard to ensure that:

The NZ Internet (in the widest sense) remains open and uncapturable

Council focusses on its responsibility to its members as well as wider society in its full diversity

InternetNZ gets the best out of its staff and operating companies, supporting our excellent Chief Execs to achieve the strategy we set

Strategic opportunities are recognised and seized as they arise

I am available and approachable for members to voice their concerns and act as a conduit to Council.

I look forward to continuing in my role to keep InternetNZ the great organisation it is, and expand its impact and the good it does in society.

From next week, .nz domain names will have the ability to contain macrons.

I’m really pleased to have lent a hand to the process which has enabled the complete Māori alphabet to be used in .nz domain names; I was on the “IDN” (Internationalised Domain Name) committee at InternetNZ which set up the policy and process for making this happen.

Here’s the InternetNZ media release:

Media Release – 22 July 2010 – The beginning of next week marks an exciting new phase for the .nz domain name space. From 10am on Monday 26 July 2010, people will be able to register .nz domain names using the macronised vowels ā, ē, ī, ō and ū.

Registering a .nz domain name with macrons will take place in exactly the same way as registering any other .nz domain name – through a ‘registrar’ – and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

New Zealand Domain Name Commissioner Debbie Monahan says the launch date for general registrations has been timed to coincide with the start of Māori Language Week, which is significant because, for the first time, New Zealand’s indigenous language, Te Reo Māori, can be correctly represented online.

“Thanks to the successful completion of the global Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) initiative the New Zealand Internet is now more culturally representative.

“The addition of macrons to the .nz domain name space is a step forward for online identity and the Internet in New Zealand and I encourage those interested in securing a macronised name to take note of the opening of general registrations on 26 July.

“This is the culmination of years of hard work at both local and international levels, and I would like to thank New Zealand’s IDN working group and .nz Registry Services for their valuable contributions.”